That’s the sound of me hitting my chair after a very busy weekend. I don’t know that I have ever gone 48 hours without posting since I started this blog.

About a week ago we were asked if we would host a fellowship for the teen guys Sunday night if their sponsors provided the food for it. It happened to be right in between other tasks and seemed like a good time, so we agreed. I had been wanting to host one of the teen fellowships (sometimes they are all together, sometimes it’s just guys or girls or just jr. or sr. high), but kept thinking I wanted to get the curtains done for the family room plus this, that, and the other. But there will always be house projects lined up. And guys probably won’t notice those things.

But having people over — even teen guys — led to a day of cleaning yesterday. We “divided and conquered.” I always feel a little guilty when Jim helps to clean because he leaves for work early and gets home late and just about doesn’t have time for anything else during the week. I hate for him to spend his weekends cleaning. But he saw my master list of things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend and just pitched in. He even told the boys to take on one more “job” than what I has assigned to them. One thing on my list was to take the little grate at the bottom of the refrigerator off and clean it and then to clean the top of the refrigerator. Jim got started on that, and in the “one thing led to another” department, went above and beyond and ended up taking everything out of all the shelves and racks and cleaning out the whole thing. I have to say it did make me smile today to open the refrigerator and see everything gleaming.

It’s especially nice to have everything all caught up in the cleaning department because the next few weeks are going to be really busy: ladies newsletter/booklet this week, then gearing up for the ladies’ luncheon at the end of April. Our school is hosting a yard sale this weekend that I hope to get some things sorted out for: it’s a good place to sell outgrown school uniforms, if nothing else. Then Jason is in a special program at his school in April, plus Easter is coming up, plus a bridal shower next week.

One funny thing in the midst of all the cleaning yesterday: Jason had vacuumed the living room floors, and just a short time later there were several dark specks on it that looked like someone’s sock fuzz. He said something like, “It is so aggravating to see stuff on the floor when I just vacuumed it.” I thought, “Welcome to my world, dear.” 🙂

Then, I had been wanting to use some Christmas money from my step-father and my husband’s mother to get an end table for the living room, and just got to that yesterday. I had seen one in a store months ago and went back to look at it. I wanted it in white, and they only had one. The drawer seemed to have a little warped place in it and what looked like a crack, but it seemed stable — we likely won’t be putting anything heavy in there. Now, if my husband had been with me, he would have asked right off the bat if they’d take some off the price for the defect. It used to embarrass me to death when he did, but quite often he would get things marked down. I’m the type of person who gets embarrassed just trying to make a return to a store to to tell a waiter my food isn’t right. But this time I just plunged in and asked if they’d take anything off the price. Well, they said, it’s already a good price, and, the good thing was if you closed the drawer you wouldn’t be able to see it…and I just kept standing there. And finally they gave me $20 off. I thought, “Jim would be so proud of me!”

Back to the fellowship (yes, I’m rambling…) it was very nice. The guys played the Wii and ate meatball subs and cupcakes. When they sang and then were asked to share a verse or a testimony, I was very pleased that there were no awkward silences or staring at the floor — they seemed to jump right in. And it was neat to see Jesse in that setting. Of course, he’s had friends over many times, one or two at a time, but I wondered how he did in the group as a whole, and he seemed to do ok.

One other exciting thing this weekend — I think I’ve found my “mother of the groom dress.”

What do you think? It’s funny how it’s almost exactly like what I had pictured in my mind. It’s more than I would normally spend…but how often does a son get married? To find something I like, in my size…I’m thinking I’ll go ahead and order it in the morning. I tend to overthink catalog purchases until the item is no longer available — probably a good thing, most of the time, but I’d hate for that to happen with this.

So…those are my “stray thoughts” from this weekend. I think I am going to go wind down with a book.

Bet does these “Up and Down” posts occasionally, and I am going to borrow the format from her. 🙂

UP: It STOPPED raining. We needed the rain, but I am glad it’s over.

UP: IT’S SNOWING!

This was after a couple of hours, I think. As of 10:30 my husband said we have 5 inches.

DOWN: I don’t know yet what to do about our ladies’ meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Monday). I guess wait and see what the weather does in the morning.

UP: Schools are closed tomorrow and Jim was scheduled to work from home anyway.

DOWN: Jason’s university almost never closes, and he used up all his allowed absences when he went to visit his fiancee, so he might have to drive in it tomorrow. Not only is he not used to driving in it, but neither are a lot of people in the South.

DOWN: The power blinked off. I hope it doesn’t go out. One of my all time least favorite things in the whole world is to be without electricity, especially at night. I know, I know, I’m spoiled.

UP: It only blinked off that one time so far.

DOWN: I still needed to get some things for the ladies’ meeting tomorrow. I can drive ok in the snow if it is just slushy but I can’t walk in it very well due to balance issues after TM. I guess we’ll see how all of that will play out with possibly rescheduling.

DOWN: Jesse’s team lost their the two games of their basketball tournament pretty badly.

UP: He has a pretty good attitude about it and is looking forward to next year.

UP: I got everything done that I was working on Friday. I didn’t get it done til Sat. afternoon…but it’s done. But that’s why I didn’t get the ladies’ meeting errands done then.

UP: I passed the 2/3 point of Les Mis! Getting to page 1,000 felt really good.

Neither up nor down, but I have never heard it thunder and seen lightning during a snowfall before!

Suzie was hoping we would let her in (we did.)

Melli is hosting an ABC photo challenge wherein we’re supposed to look for letters in common everyday things or in nature without actually manipulating anything to make the letter and without photographing the letter itself in a word. We’re doing two letters a week, and this week it is C and D.

I’ve really got a handle on the letters this week (ha, ha…ahem). My “C” is the handle of a little tin:

Front view:

And my “D” is the handle of a basket I keep my Christmas CDs in — which is still out…

In other news…there’s not much other news. I am late posting today. I’m working on the monthly ladies’ ministry newsletter/booklet, and there was a section for which I needed to do some studying. I figured I better do that first, both to think clearly and to make sure it got done and to take advantage of some rare solitude.

It’s been a gray, misty, foggy day — I’ve been glad to be inside for most of it. I hope the moisture clears off before we get some colder temperatures this weekend so we don’t have a lot of ice.

I hope to visit the other ABCers later this evening! Have a good afternoon/evening/night!

We had a light dusting of snow yesterday morning:

(These are Jeremy’s pictures.) They were originally forecasting 1-2 inches Monday night and another couple Tuesday morning, but I don’t know if we got a whole inch all together.

It was enough to close the schools, though! You have to remember that here in the South they don’t spend the money to invest in a lot of snowplows and such (they do have a few) when they’d only use them maybe once or twice a year, plus people who aren’t used to it don’t know how to drive in it. And they have to make the call about school closings way early in order to get the word out, and they have to consider not just the main roads but the backs ones that school buses would be lumbering over. So usually any amount of snow causes school closings. But I do have to admit this one was probably miscalled. We could have gotten by with just a delay, but we probably didn’t even need that.

But it was nice to have a day off. Jeremy put together enough snow to make a 6-8″ snowman with a baby carrot for a nose:

Even the baby carrot is a little big for him!

And it was neat the kids could be off for Inauguration Day. It made it seem like a holiday. I wanted Jesse to see it. He wasn’t terribly interested, but I turned the TV on anyway, just about the time they were introducing the former presidents. I probably would have had the TV on most of the day if I had been in the same room with one for the day. I was sorry I missed the parade. I don’t know why, but I really like that part.

I don’t have a laptop and my PC is in another room, but I jotted down some thoughts as I watched:

• For a nation that has gone increasingly toward the casual, I am glad we retain a bit of pomp and ceremony for occasions like this.
• They said the wind chill was 14 degrees. I just cannot imagine being out in that cold for that long! We joked about the trumpet players’ lips freezing on their instruments.
• I also can’t imagine being way, way at the back. I was glad to be in my own warm house with my very own bathroom.
• I enjoyed seeing the former presidents enter.
• I hadn’t heard about Lynn Cheney being an author — will have to look up what she’s written. I was sorry to hear about Mr. Cheney’s accident.
• I like that the mikes picked up a lot of side comments — one of the announcers said they were picking up more than intended, But that was fun.
• It did this Southern girl’s heart good to hear Laura Bush say, “Hey there!” I enjoyed the announcers saying that she had really blossomed during her husband’s term in office. They said she had originally told him she didn’t want to make any speeches, but now she is quite an accomplished speaker. She has always been every inch a lady. I admire her a lot.
• At some point they showed a glimpse of the moving vans behind the White House. I thought that was a little sad. Then I thought, you know how it is on moving day, even if you have professional movers, and I can’t imagine either Mrs. Bush or Mrs. Obama calmly sitting through a ceremony while other people are moving their things!
• I was also thinking of Michelle Obama as her girls entered. I wonder if she would rather they entered with her. I would have. It must be hard in some instances to entrust them to other people.
• It will be fun to have relatively young children in the White House again. I enjoyed watching Michelle Obama “mother” the girls and the older girl filming her dad on her camera.
• I know some people would object to an opening prayer on this occasion at all, but it was a blessing to me to see a lot of people praying the Lord’s prayer out loud.
• I’m glad Rick Warren did not refrain from praying in Jesus’ name.
• I wonder why the vice-president’s contains a phrase about mental reservations while the president’s doesn’t? Either way — better not have any left at that point!
• I really, really enjoyed the piece played by Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma and the two others (I wasn’t familiar with them). I have greatly liked Yo-Yo Ma ever since I first heard of or saw him years ago on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. (Don’t laugh — that’s where I got a lot of cultural enlightenment when the boys were little.)

No really deep thoughts there — I expressed those yesterday. I didn’t analyze the speeches — others can do that better than I can. We turned the TV off after people began disbursing from the area. I had it on again for a while last night to see some of the coverage of the different balls.

I also watched “The Biggest Loser.” This is my first season to watch it. I guess I am hoping it inspires me, and it is causing me to question some of my choices and say “no” a little more often. Just one thought so far: people don’t seem to be getting that Joellen isn’t motivated by yelling. She shuts down. I do, too. I don’t think she’s putting as much into it as she could, and I think her hesitation on the first “temptation” last time marked her, but I hope they find a different way to interact with her. She probably should have gone home last night, but, then again. Damien had the support and motivation to continue on his own. I think if Joellen had gone home she’d be done.

And that’s enough about that.

My blog friend Melli has started an ABC photo challenge over the next several Wednesdays. The idea is to find letters of the alphabet in the things around us — not in a letter on a sign or in something we manipulate to form the letter. She’s doing two letters at a time with today’s being A and B.

I wanted to look around outside to see if I could find something, but never did. Tese aren’t too exciting, but here they are:

This looks like an A shape to me:

And this turned on its side has a B shape in it:

The original picture:

I’ll try to do better next time, Melli!